New Report Shows 64 Of 195 Countries Aren't Meeting Basic Vaccination Target
The goal is to reach 90 percent of children with the DPT vaccination — a child's first scheduled immunization. Some countries are barely at 50 percent.
Vaccine progress is stalling.
That's the message from a new report issued by the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
The report focuses on the DTP vaccine — the essential vaccine that protects kids against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) and that was first licensed in 1949.
The WHO goal is to vaccinate 90 percent of the world's children against DTP, delivered in a series of three shots over three to four months That 90 percent figure is important not only to protect kids from these life-threatening diseases but because the percent of children receiving DTP is a good indicator of how well countries
